Rainey Street Ripper Strikes Again? More Death at Lady Bird Lake
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
3.9 • 7.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
In 1960, Lady Bird Lake was built by the city of Austin. The river-like reservoir was created as a cooling pond for Austin's then-new city power plant.
The 416-acre lake is now primarily used for recreation, but many in the area are now concerned is it the hunting ground for a killer. There have been multiple deaths reported since 2022. The total now up to 38 deaths.
Even though police have given no indication there are signs of foul play, social media has lit up with speculation. According to the San Antonio Current, rumors of a serial killer hunting young men and dumping their bodies in Lady Bird Lake ran rampant. That's when Police recovered the bodies of Jason John, Clifton Axtell, Jonathon Honey, and Christopher Hays-Clark — all between the ages of 20 and 40 and all recovered from Lady Bird Lake.
Reegan Aparicio says she has no doubts that her longtime boyfriend Chris Hays-Clark was placed in Lady Bird Lake. The dental nurse says despite police assurances that there was no foul play in Hays-Clark's death, she believes he was already dead when he went into the water.
Many citizens are worried.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Reegan Aparicio - Mother to Christopher Clark's (son) Friend, GoFundMe:
- Alan Bennett – Former Assistant District Attorney; Partner at Gunter, Bennett, and Anthes
- Dr. Dana Anderson – Forensic Psychologist, Forensic Expert; Twitter: @psychologydrcom, TikTok: @psychologydr
- Dennis Franks - Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent, President of Investigative & Security Global Solutions
- Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth) and Lecturer: University of Texas Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School
- Brianna Hollis - Crime Reporter, KXAN News; IG: @brihollis_, X: @brihollisNEWS, FB: Brianna Hollis News
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:04.8 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:10.8 | The city of Austin gripped by fears of a serial killer as law enforcement reveals 38 bodies, 38, 38, have been found in and around one lake. |
| 0:29.7 | In the last days, another victim. |
| 0:33.2 | I'm Nancy Grace. |
| 0:34.4 | This is crime stories. |
| 0:35.7 | Thank you for being with us. |
| 0:38.3 | That's right. In the last days, a grim discovery made. A spokesperson for Austin PD says a teen boy goes missing Sunday as he was strolling along and planning to kayak Lady Bird Lake. |
| 0:56.9 | Authorities immediately launched a search and rescue effort to no avail. |
| 1:03.3 | Days later, a paddleboarder makes a grim discovery spotting the teen's body floating in the water near a busy intersection |
| 1:14.8 | at West Riverside Drive at South Lamar Boulevard. |
| 1:19.9 | What happened to the teen boy? |
| 1:23.3 | The artificial lake, Lady Bird Lake, stretches over five miles. |
| 1:30.4 | Was this death an accident? |
| 1:35.5 | We may never know, but the backdrop is 38 bodies found in and around Lady Bird Lake. For instance, there's Jeff Jones. He flies |
| 1:50.0 | into Austin last year for what he thought would be a bachelor party. He went to dinner with his friends |
| 1:55.4 | and started and headed out to move on to bars along West 6th Street around 1 a.m. He got separated from his friends. |
| 2:05.5 | Two weeks later, he wakes up in the hospital with metal rod supporting his back. He doesn't |
| 2:11.1 | remember a thing. Doctors find the date rape drug or hypnol in his system and told him he had been found in the water near a 25-foot high drop from a bridge. |
| 2:28.2 | Terrified Jones thinks he was drugged and pushed by a potential serial killer that many believe is roaming the streets |
| 2:36.2 | of Austin. Listen to Austin Police Officers speaking out. Our initial information doesn't show anything |
| 2:42.3 | suspicious, but we don't make that final determination until the medical examiner's been able to |
... |
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